Robot Wars Magazine
During the course of the show's run, a Robot Wars Magazine was published to follow the series and give behind-the-scenes information about the show and the future series. There were two separate magazines, each published on a monthly basis. The first edition covered Series 4 and also had previews of Series 5 and Extreme Series 1. It ran for 20 editions before it was cancelled. The second edition covered Series 6 and was due to cover Extreme 2, but it was cancelled after only 7 editions, despite having notably more information than its predecessor. First Edition The first version of the Robot Wars Magazine was primarily dedicated to covering the Fourth Series of Robot Wars. The editions would provide detailed profiles of the House Robots and some of the most notable contestant robots, and would later feature brief reports for the various heats, including trivia about some of the robots. After Series 4 had ended, it began with posting previews of Series 5, with a look at some of the newest competitor robots, as well as providing a wallchart with the line-up for that year. Each magazine also had a "puzzle zone". Robot Wars Club Members of the official Robot Wars Club would receive a free subscription to the Robot Wars Magazine. In the magazine, there was always a page featuring various updates, including notable contestant websites and news about new Robot Wars pullbacks and minibots. Comics The first magazine contained several comic strips, as was common in many magazines. The first few comics were "back stories" for the House Robots, showing their "origins". The comics often had a very sci-fi feel to them, portraying the House Robots as having very exaggerated beginnings, such as for example, Shunt originally being a power plant maintenance drone mutated into a horned monstrosity by a nuclear meltdown, and Sergeant Bash being an experimental weapon for World War. The depiction of them in this light is somewhat similar to their "origins" mentioned in the Robot Wars Technical Manual. Fantasy fight1.jpg|Tornado takes on Firestorm and Bolt from the Blue in Fantasy Fight. Fantasy fight.jpg|Note the exaggerated action in the comic. RWMchaoshypno1.jpg|Chaos 2 fights Hypnodisc again RWMchaoshypno2.jpg|Hypno-Disc takes its revenge on Chaos 2 Later editions featured "Fantasy Fights" between various Series 4 competitors. The battles usually had a theme (for example, one fight features Firestorm 2, Bolt from the Blue and Tornado fighting each other in a "weather" themed battle) and, like the House Robot origin comics, tended to be rather exaggerated in terms of damage, with explosions and panels often flying off with little more than a ram. The fights also frequently featured several errors in the robots designs or weapons. Earlier issues tended to have one Fantasy Fight, whilst there were two Fantasy Fights in later issues, usually one being a head-to-head whilst the other was a three-way-melee. Some battles contained a House Robot, which would get rather involved in the battle and invariably end up destroying one or all of the competitors. Note: Winners are shown in bold *(Issue 7) - Chaos 2 vs Cassius *(Issue 8) - Plunderbird 4 vs Sir Chromalot. *(Issue 9) - Dominator 2 vs Weld-Dor 2 vs Berserk 2. *(Issue 10) - Spawn of Scutter vs Aggrobot 2. *(Issue 11) - Panic Attack vs Suicidal Tendencies 2/'Behemoth' vs Wild Thing vs Gemini. *(Issue 12) - Robochicken vs Destruct-A-Bubble vs Banshee/'Pussycat' vs Mousetrap *(Issue 13) - Chaos 2 vs Hypno-Disc/Stinger vs Wheelosaurus *(Issue 14) - Scorpion vs Bulldog Breed 2 vs Terror-Bull/Centurion vs Tiberius *(Issue 15) - Disc-O-Inferno vs Warhog vs Mazakari/Cronos vs Reptirron *(Issue 16) - Diotoir vs The Creature/Gravedigger vs The Morgue vs Knightmare *(Issue 17) - Firestorm 2 vs Tornado vs Bolt from the Blue/'Razer' vs Raizer Blade *(Issue 18) - Sump Thing vs Onslaught vs Scar/'Saw Point' vs Spikasaurus. *(Issue 19) - X-Terminator 2 vs Reactor 2/Milly-Ann Bug vs Little Fly vs Evil Weevil 2 *(Issue 20) - Stinger vs Mortis vs Hypno-Disc/'Pussycat, Razer and Chaos 2' vs The Red Baron The Red Baron File:RedBaron.jpg|The Red Baron, as it appeared on the front of the Magazine File:Red Baron 2.JPG|The Red Baron, in a Fantasy Fight, meets his match In the 8th edition, a fictional House Robot called The Red Baron was created. The robot, named after the nickname of World War I flying ace Manfred Von Richthoffen, was designed to incorporate all of the "best bits" of the original five House Robots into a single machine. Some of its features included Dead Metal's saw, Shunt's bulldozer, Matilda's chainsaw, Sergeant Bash's flamethrower and Sir Killalot's claw and lance. It ran on Sir Killalot's tracks, whilst its body was the same design as Sergeant Bash's, except it was red instead of green. The Red Baron also made an appearance in the last edition of the magazine, where it fought Chaos 2, Pussycat and Razer in one of the Fantasy Fights. However, even after at one point pinning Chaos 2's flipper down due to its massive weight, it lost after its armour was damaged by Chaos 2 and Razer, before having its hydraulic cables severed by Pussycat's blade, whereupon it literally exploded. Notable Moments During the run, the magazine generated several notable moments that were carried over to the show and its various merchandise, and even a minor incident that was the basis for a Vengeance battle in the first series of Extreme. RMagsOriginal.jpg|Various issues of the first magazine File: Writeup.jpg|A report of a recently aired heat. File: Robopuzzle.jpg|A puzzle from the Puzzle Zone. Pa3 001.jpg|The competition to join the Panic Attack team Stegname.jpg|The Steg 3 competition. Aodthor.jpg|Thor, the winning design in the Arenas of Destruction competition. Thor_AoD.jpg|Thor, as it appeared in Arenas of Destruction. DemolisherRWMsmall.jpg|Cairon Byrne's column: Dr Zulu's Robot Hospital ZulufirestormRWMup.jpg|The offending article in Dr Zulu's column. DrawVelocirippa.jpg|A guide to drawing Velocirippa, from the "How To Draw" section MagFutureArena.jpg|A cartoon of what the Arena might look like in the future *A competition was held in one edition of the magazine to join the Panic Attack team in Series 4. The competition was ultimately won by Christian Bridge, who joined the team not only in Series 4, but also during Extreme 1. *3 Stegs to Heaven received its name from a competition held by the Steg team, who "didn't just want to call it Steg 3". *Another contest held was to design a robot for the then-upcoming Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction. The winning design, Thor, was included in the game as part of the prize. *Team Nemesis member Cairon Byrne had his own column called "Dr. Zulu's Robot Hospital", where he would answer questions sent in by fans. *A notable incident occurred in the magazine, where Diotoir team member Dr Zulu made a rude comment about the Firestorm team in response to a question asked by a reader. A Vengeance battle was staged between Diotoir and Firestorm during Extreme Series 1, whereby Dr Zulu would be forced to write an apology if Firestorm won the battle. Unfortunately, although Firestorm did win, the magazine was cancelled before the apology could be written. Second Edition The second edition (now called Robot Wars: The Official Magazine) was first published after Heat A of Series 6. In direct contrast to the previous magazine, it was designed to be much more informative, with more focus being put on the battle reports and the behind-the-scenes interviews. As a result, the comics from the previous edition were dropped completely. This magazine featured news and updates from the Robot Wars world, detailed battle write-ups from the Sixth Wars, complete with robot stats, as well as various interviews with well known Robot Wars teams, the presenters and the judges. There were also various articles from behind the scenes, with the first magazine covering the concept of then-new house robots Mr. Psycho and Growler. Team 101 captain Mike Franklin also had his own section where he gave advice about robot building. He was also due to provide instructions for readers to build their very own robot, but the magazine was cancelled before this could happen. Members of the Robot Wars Club, as with the last one, would get a free subscription to the magazine, an advertisement which was shown during the ending disclaimer of every Series 6/Extreme 2 episode. Conflict Although notably more informative than its predecessor, the second edition of Robot Wars Magazine did not last as long, with only seven issues published. During its run, it had a notable clash with the BBC line-up. The first issue was published not long after Heat A, however, it featured write-ups of Heat A and B, thus providing spoilers for the heat. Notably, one reader wrote in to the publishers and informed them, whereby a written apology was made. Unfortunately, this was not the end of the conflict. The seventh issue, the last issue to be released, covered the first three shows of the second series of Extreme (the All-Stars and the Annihilator). However, the BBC had been postponing Robot Wars for a few weeks to provide coverage of several other shows, including golf. By the time the magazine was actually issued, only the first heat of the All-Stars had actually been aired. The eighth issue had been due to cover the Minor Meltdown, Tag Team Terror and the first two heats of the New Blood, but by the time the magazine would have come out, the BBC had aired none of these episodes. The eighth issue was never published, and the magazine was promptly cancelled, with a few people believing that this continual conflict with the BBC's airing being the main reason for its cancellation. RWmags1.jpg|Issues 1 to 4 of the magazine RWmags2.jpg|Issues 5 to 7 of the magazine Robomagheat.jpg|Part of a write up of a heat. Note the much greater detail than the first magazine TornadoInt.JPG|Part of an in-depth interview with Team Tornado Magazine8.jpg|The cover of the planned Eighth issue, which was ultimately not released RWMag2 issue 3 preview cover.jpg|Preview cover of issue 3 RWMag2 issue 6 preview cover.jpg|Preview cover of issue 6, using previous layout Category:Books and Magazines